8 August 2018: Space mission provider Open Cosmos and satellite communication service provider Addvalue have announced the signature of a key partnership to provide continuous communication and “data-burst as-a-service” to constellation-based remote sensing and IoT businesses.

The agreement will allow Open Cosmos’s nanosatellites to stay in continuous communications with their operation centre on the ground, thereby enabling mission tasking and mission data delivery in near real time. The combination of light weight, small form factor, and a low cost system also makes it perfectly suited for carrying out telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C) communications, mission tasking, trouble-shooting and restoring operations.

This agreement builds on Addvalue’s Inter-Satellite Data Relay System (IDRS™) capability and Open Cosmos’s satellite-as-a-service, offering to service a range of customer applications needing near-real time connectivity. The Addvalue terminal on-board the satellite will communicate to its operations centre via Inmarsat’s global space and ground network.

Open Cosmos and Addvalue are working together to prequalify the technical integration of the IDRS™ terminal with a qbee satellite platform. Customers of Open Cosmos can then expect rapid deployment of the IDRS™ capability on any of the qbee satellite platforms from 6U, 12U to 50kg as Open Cosmos will have IDRS™ terminals readily available on its qbapp marketplace™ from 2019.

Dr Colin Chan, Chairman and CEO Addvalue said: “This partnership to provide an IDRS™ terminal tailored to the qbee satellite platform as an add-on function will enable us to shorten our turnaround time to deploy the IDRS™ service as and when real-time connectivity is required by Open Cosmos customers.”

Khai Pang Tan, COO and Chief Technical Officer Addvalue, remarked: “We see a strong synergy between the Open Cosmos ground breaking “Satellite as a Service” business model and the benefit of including Addvalue’s IDRS™ to provide near real-time connectivity to the qbee satellite. Together they present a strong and compelling proposition for the New Space Customer.”

Rafel Jorda Siquier, Founder & CEO, Open Cosmos said: “Many of our space mission customers have been asking for near-real time communications with our qbee satellites. Addvalue is using our simple-i service to fully qualify the compatibility of its IDRS™ in our qbkit and when that is done we will be able to offer it as an off-the-shelf service in all our satellites.”

Tristan Laurent, Head of Market Development, Open Cosmos said: “The IDRS™ capability will unlock an entirely new range of applications needing continuous connectivity between their payloads and the ground, ranging from high data-burst downlink to real-time alert system. Furthermore it will decrease initial commissioning time and overall constellation management risk for our customers.”

About Open CosmosOpen Cosmos provides simple and affordable space missions. Based at Harwell Campus, it was founded in July 2015 by Rafael Jordà Siquier with the goal of enabling companies to use space technologies for tackling global challenges. The company now employs 33 people from countries around the world including the US, China, Spain, India, Germany, and France.

The first Open Cosmos satellite was launched in April 2017 in a record time of six months from design to delivery, encouraging companies and organizations like the European Space Agency to contract their own missions. In April 2018, Open Cosmos closed a Series A funding round of $7M, and is now gearing up to manufacture 30 satellites a year.

About AddvalueAddvalue Innovation Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SGX Mainboard-listed Addvalue Technologies Ltd (A31), is a leading one-stop digital, wireless and broadband communications technology products innovator, which provides state-of-the-art satellite-based communication terminals and solutions for a variety of voice and IP based data applications. Addvalue is presently a leading global developer and supplier of mobile satellite terminals supporting coverage provided by premier mobile satellite communication system operators. These terminals are an ideal choice for communications in areas around the world where terrestrial networks are non-existent, or ineffective. This is particularly so for maritime communications, which rely almost entirely on satellite communications, where Addvalue’s marine communications terminals are well suited.